Who pays for drainpipe over kitchen extension?

sarks

No I'm not unclear. I own the freehold of my downstairs flat. A tyneside tenancy agreement is a term that was formed for the type of flats in this area - for the unintiated, imagine a row of terraced houses c.1900 with twice as many front doors as you would expect, purpose built flats with no communal areas or shared yards, but with a peppercorn lease arrangement between upstairs and downstairs flats to enable you to get repairs done etc... There is no peppercorn lease agreement to get repairs done. That is the issue at hand which I'm unsure about.

macman

A little bit of Googling throws this up:
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?19336-Criss-cross-%28Tyneside%29-lease-and-f-r-scheme
You appear to have been offered a crossover lease, in which case you do not own the freehold of your own flat, but that of the upstairs property, and vice versa.
This issue should have been clarified/resolved at the time of purchase, not when the upstairs property was sold though?.
Without such an arrangement in place, what happens when major repairs are required is anyone's guess. This is a relatively minor issue, what happens with higher cost repairs?

sarks

Sorry, I forget this type of arrangement is not common throughout the land. I should have called it that at first to make it clear.

sarks

Yes! That is where I got the info I posted lol.

macman

In the absence of a crossover lease, all you can do is contact the other freeholder and request him to make the repairs. If he doesn't, and the leak causes damage to your property, you would have to take a civil action against him.
As I said, sooner or later you are going to run into a bigger dispute in the absence of a proper arrangement. When the roof goes, the upstairs freeholder is not going to carry 100% of the costs.

System

As this is an added extension then I would have said that the downstairs owner would be responsible for the pipe as the drain was rerouted as part of the extension build.

sarks

I really appreciate your help, that is what I will do. And I'm not too worried about the roof stuff, it's one of the weird arrangements that if we ever do create a Tyneside lease they have to care for the roof and I have to care for the foundations. I am just hoping nothing goes wrong with the drainage system.

sarks

Sorry !!!!!!, yours wasn't there when I posted. That was my concern as well. Oh well, I'll contact them and see what they say and take it from there.

macman

The real issue here is why your conveyancer allowed your purchase to go through without a crossover lease in place? I can't imagine any buyer wanting to take on the property in the absence of that, so how will you ever be able to sell it on?
With a crossover lease, you would be the holder of the upstairs freehold.